GlobalNet21 is the leading forum in the UK for discussing the major issues in the 21st Century. We share a common concern for the sustainability of both our planet and the people on it. With almost 20,000 network members in the UK and abroad, we are making the debate, and democracy, more accessible by enlarging the Public Square and using social networks.

Join our Events

Check out all our events here where you can register for any meeting. We hold meetings and webinars. Read more…

GLOBALNET21 GROUPS

In GlobalNet21 there are many ways to have a voice, discuss, learn or take action. Find out more.

Member Gallery

There are many GlobalNet21 members who help develop events and activities as well as keep our network active. More…

Creating Community In The Digital Age

Building Community Resilience

Many communities feel under threat as social change threatens their cohesion. As the 21st century moves forward these threats will grow as communities face the challenges of climate change, economic crisis, growing inequalities and less resources.

Building resilience has become one of the major tasks of our decade. GlobalNet21 together with others is planning an ongoing series of events and activities around resilience.

This is being done by members of the GlobalNet21 Collaborative Network of local authorities, universities, housing associations, community groups and social enterprises.

GlobalNet21 is developing a programme called Democracy Focus where decision makers are questioned online either through Webinars or Internet TV. We have already piloted this with three UK Members of Parliament using our Webinar system but with TVApex, we will soon be developing this project with Internet TV. We plan to soon involve decision makers from other countries to involve a global audience. We are also piloting with both councillors and MPs the development of digital public meetings and local surgeries.

We are working with the British Council to interview Scientists online about some of the ethical and developmental issues of our day. We hope to involve them in a dialogue with a general audience but also with other contributors from universities, politics and civil society. Associated with this will be a number of podcasts that will form a knowledge base for the interviews we do online.

We are developing a number of links with universities and colleges to involve students in our discussions. For example Canterbury Christ Church students joined our Democracy Focus webinars, London Met students attended our House of Commons meeting on Poverty and University of Reading students linked up with students in NE USA for a joint webinar. We hope this will expand and develop in the coming year

Local & Global Webinars

Our network is both local and global. We not only hold local meetings but we also engage globally through forums and webinars.

Our webinars are getting popular and allow people from across the globe to join us. In our discussions, organisations and groups from across the world present and offer case studies of good practice. We learn from each other, learn how to replicate what others do and make contacts for further knowledge exchange and action.

As we develop our activities around key issues, then many people want to find out more and gain further information. Our links with universities help provide this. But we are also linking with other organisations like the World Lecture Project in Berlin that hosts over 10,000 videos on many of the topics we discuss as well as source new ones directly relevant to what we do.

GlobalNet21 & TVApex are in talks with a number of local authorities and communities to engage different communities online by using a link up through Internet TV. This is in an early stage at the moment and we hope to do a pilot in the next couple of months.

Learning Environments

Linking our events with resources across the globe helps to provide a learning environment to what we do and helps with a deeper understanding.

To achieve this, we work with Universities and also the World Lecture Project, which is based in Berlin. WLP is the central platform for delivering academic videos from faculties worldwide. You can find videos according to various criteria: theme, faculty, country, language, institution and others.